TMBBQ Rating: 3.5

More Reviews

Smitty’s is just too good to dock it a star based on one mediocre visit, but this last one wasn’t up to the level I’m used to at Smitty’s. [After some poignant review of the last few visits, I must reconsider the high rating of five stars. Of four visits, three have been mediocre, including the last two. This is not a streak worthy of such a high rating.] While the sausage was well smoked…

Something about watching a man in a grease stained white jacket and a large knife portioning out my lunch, makes me crave it even more with every slice. Service is curt and efficient at this Lockhart legend, but the only niceties I need were piled on that butcher paper. An order of fatty brisket, lean shoulder clod, ribs, sausage and a large pork chop were tantalizing atop the greasy butcher paper. The sweet glaze on…

Don’t bother going in the front door. You’ll end up in the parking lot behind the boxy brick building anyway, doing the Smitty’s shuffle: At peak hours, the lines invariably stretch out the back door. Patiently, you inch your way forward, passing the waist-high brick pits and perusing the list of post oak–smoked meats (brisket, pork ribs and chops, shoulder clod, sausage, prime rib). Salivating, you finally place your order for a pound or so…

TMBBQ Buzz

Not a fan of the sausage but everything else is great. This is a place for the BBQ traditionalist just salt, pepper meat and smoke. They now have BBQ sauce but I was good without it. If you want to try something different get the smoked pork chops, but you will need to share it with a friend if you want to try everything else.

Was here on Thursday as part of the Lockhart tour and would have to say I was a bit disappointed. I have been here before and enjoyed the food, today the moist brisket was dry and with little flavor. The sausage was a disappointment also. I am sure everyone is entitled to an off day

I don't know what happened... we went through on a Sunday a few weeks back. walking in is a treat because you are literally right next to the fire and you will definitely leave smelling heavenly! however, the meat was a different story. we got brisket and ribs and although moist, there was no real flavor of any kind. we also tried the prime rib, but again, no flavor. we had.l just been to Black's, which was amazing, so this was kind of a disappointment. we'll try again, everyone has their days...

Review

May 28, 2013

Fire is hypnotic. Staring into it can be mesmerizing and may even alter your state of mind. Take the fire at Smitty’s Market for example. Just inside the back door, which is really the primary entrance, an open fire is the first thing you encounter. The flames lick their way beyond the edge of a towering brick wall. Beyond the wall, the space opens up into a large room with meat-filled brick pits. At a greasy cutting block, meat cutters clad in aprons stained with drippings go about their business. A now-perspiring brow keeps you keenly aware of the fire. This is a good thing since there are no warning signs posted nor is the pit chained off. The stack of charred wood and glowing coals is riveting. The only thing that can break the trance is the pointed beckoning from one of the cashiers. It’s your turn to order. Don’t hold up the line.

I provided my order in a flurry. The Texas trinity of brisket, pork ribs and sausage was a requirement, but I had to add one of those behemoth pork chops and some shoulder clod as well. There were two of us eating and the butcher paper was already filling up. It was time to fork over some cash (credit cards are not accepted) and find a place to sit. The main dining room is great with its high ceilings and endless picnic tables, but we instead sought the lesser known dining area upstairs. It was mid-afternoon on a Saturday and the only company we had in this sparse room was a decade-old poster of a scantily clad Sandra Bullock with an inscription singing the praises of Smitty’s fine smoked meats. I couldn’t have agreed more…a decade ago.

I once endangered my wife’s life and my own by driving back to Dallas from Lockhart with the steering wheel in one hand and a hot Smitty’s pork rib in the other. It was smoked meat bliss: Every bite brought a giddy laugh of satisfaction, which was no doubt unsettling to my captive passenger. But that was years ago. On my recent trip there was little to praise. The ribs could have been steamed for all the smokiness they provided, and the sauce provided nearly all the flavor. The sauce. This in a joint that makes you ask for sauce at the drink counter if you want it. Sure the ribs have had that sweet glaze for some time, but that was a glaze that shimmered and was crisped by the smoke. This was pork that looked like it had just seen a dunk tank before being sliced and served. The poorly rendered fat layer seemed like a minor issue in comparison.

Just last year I had some of Smitty’s best brisket and shoulder clod. I’ve always preferred their pork offerings and ring sausage to the beef here, but that day was great. Cooking so hot and so fast can wreak havoc on the moisture level in a brisket, but that last visit had me wondering if my mind could be changed. On this day, that was all erased. Breaking apart a slice of brisket with your hands tells a lot about how tender it is. Does it stretch? How much does it yield? An ideal brisket slice will elongate ever so slightly before breaking apart cleanly. These slices just stretched and stretched, like the waistband on an old pair of boxers. I clenched each end with a fist and pulled with considerable effort before it finally tore in half. The rest I cut with the plastic knife, which soon snapped in two. To be fair to the knife, it had already been overexerted by the dry pork chop. If there was anything redeeming in the flavor of the brisket it probably would have made little difference, but there wasn’t. This was easily the worst piece of brisket that I’d eaten in Lockhart. Just to be certain that we weren’t losing our minds, a return trip with another taster was arranged for later in the week. The results did not vary.

There are some that find joy in saying that they knew a barbecue joint way back when it was really good. But isn’t that because memory often trumps the here and now? I have eaten many great meals at Smitty’s. The pork chop was never this dry or this lacking in smoke flavor. I don’t remember clod so unmemorable. I felt a bit sad when biting into the beef sausage. The first bite from the curve in the ring brought a pleasing snap and the fat rushed forth along with smoky, peppery beefiness. This was the great Smitty’s sausage of my memory, which made the rest of a very bad meal much more real.

Matt Duckor lives in New York and writes for Bon Appetit. While in Austin for SXSW this year, he went on a long Central Texas barbecue tour with mostly positive results, then wrote an article about it. His only comment on Smitty’s was “The decor at Smitty’s would be worth the trip if the barbecue wasn’t so epically disappointing.” This comes from the crowd that normally goes no further into barbecue criticism than saying “fatty brisket rocks” and “they really eat with their hands down here.” For them it was a disappointing visit because the food wasn’t up to par with the rest of their itinerary. For us, this visit to Smitty’s was disappointing because it confirmed that the joint would have to fall from Texas Monthly’s Top 50 list. Every barbecue list ever compiled by the magazine had included this address on South Commerce in Lockhart (before it became Smitty’s, in 1999, after a family dispute, it was Kreuz Market). But our Top 50 list isn’t a hall of fame vote. It was about what Smitty’s was cooking now, and on this day (and on several repeat visits) it wasn’t worthy.

Not surprised. My wife and I stop in Lockhart on a regular basis whilst traveling between San Antonio and Houston. Smitty’s is a place we avoid, usually stopping at City Meat Market, after we had 2 misadventures there. Both times the BBQ was marginal, as was the service – on our last visit, getting to the place about 15 minutes before they closed, our “hosts” were a couple of teenagers who spent their time standing around talking and giving late arriving customers a “you’re bothering me” look. It is disappointing to see the demise of a real Texas classic.